Is there a female character with significant screen time who grows, changes, and/or learns something over the course of the story? (for an ensemble cast, or a film with a male protagonist) [why this matters]

Is a woman introduced by the camera crawling up her body (either front or back) from her feet to her head? [why this matters]

GENDER/SEXUALITY SCORE:-5

-5

Is there a female character who is primarily defined by her emotional and/or sexual relationship with a man or men? [why this matters]

WILDCARD SCORE:-10

Is there anything either positive or negative in the film’s representation of women not already accounted for here? (points will vary)

The film features an extended sequence of slut-shaming, in which a teen girl is castigating for having had sex, but not the teen boy she had sex with, and this is the fulcrum upon which the plot hinges. Her behavior — but not his — is treated as something so terrible as to be world-shattering.

TOTAL SCORE:+0

IS THE FILM’S DIRECTOR FEMALE? No (does not impact scoring)

IS THE FILM’S SCREENWRITER FEMALE? No (does not impact scoring)

BOTTOM LINE: More than one girl in a horror-movie ensemble of teens plus a female villain are good things. But the most prominent of the girls is treated in a pretty retrograde, gendered, double standard-fueled way, and mostly wipes out the positives.

NOTE: This is not a “review” of Unfriended! It is simply an examination of how well or how poorly it represents women. (A movie that represents women well can still be a terrible film; a movie that represents women poorly can still be a great film.) Read my review of Unfriended.